Kupets Wins U.S. Gymnastics Title

Published 8:00 pm, Friday, June 20, 2003

AP Sports Writer

Courtney Kupets is going to have to get a new trophy case to store all the medals she's won in the last year.

And the world championships are still to come.

Kupets edged two-time defending champ Tasha Schwikert at the U.S. Gymnastics Championships on Saturday night to win her first national title. Kupets finished with 74.950 points, less than three-tenths ahead of Schwikert and Hollie Vise, who tied for second.

The three are guaranteed spots on the team for the world championships in August in Anaheim, Calif. The remaining three members of the world team and two alternates will be named after a selection training camp early next month.

Annia Hatch, who began the night in first place, fell on both the uneven bars and balance beam and dropped to fifth place.

Sent to the individual event world championships last fall as an unknown, Kupets came home with a gold on the uneven bars. She's made steady progress since then, and she came into nationals on a roll after winning the U.S. Classic two weeks ago.

Now she's the national champion.

Though Vise led for most of the night, Kupets steadily made up ground with each event. Starting on the floor, she strutted and sashayed her way to a 9.400, the third-highest score of the night on the event.

Her uneven bars routine was spectacular, including a Tkatchev move where she let go of the upper bar and flew over it backward in a piked position. The crowd oohed and aahed as she grabbed the bar again, making it look as easy as doing a cartwheel.

As she stuck her dismount, a wide grin crossed her face.

She went into her final event, the balance beam, needing a 9.425 to pass Vise.

"I don't think she knew until they announced it," coach Kelli Hill said. "I knew. I told her to do her normal set and stay with the program."

She more than delivered. She pulled off tricks on the four-inch wide beam most people couldn't manage on flat ground. On one pass, she did a front aerial somersault, took a small pause and then coolly did another one backward as the crowd roared.

Kupets was grinning as she landed her dismount, and she got a big hug from coach Jen Bundy. She scored a 9.650, good enough to move her into first place.

But would it stand up? Or would Schwikert top her?

Hampered by an ankle injury that required surgery in December, Schwikert hadn't competed since last year's national championships and found herself way down in sixth place after the preliminaries. But being a champion requires as much heart as it does skill, and she displayed both Saturday night.

She passed one opponent after another. After three events she was just .025 behind Kupets _ and her favorite event, the floor exercise, was still to come.

There are few performers in the world better on floor than Schwikert. When her music starts, it's as if a light is turned on. While other gymnasts tumble and do tricks, Schwikert puts on a show worthy of her Las Vegas hometown.

Her first tumbling pass was huge, putting her so far off the floor a ladder couldn't reach her. But she got too much power on her second pass, and couldn't stop herself from flying out of bounds.

That's a one-tenth deduction, and it was enough to cost Schwikert a third U.S. title. Still, with the injuries she's had to overcome, she came to nationals just hoping to make the world team. As she walked off the podium, she clapped her hands and then clasped them as if saying, "Please."

And when her score of 9.45 flashed, it was good enough to put her in second place _ and on the world team.

Hatch already has seven national titles from her native Cuba, and she was hoping to add one from her adopted country. But she got off to a rough start, falling on a release move on uneven bars, her first event.

The crowd gasped as she dropped to the ground, and her husband and coach, Alan, winced. He gave his wife some words of encouragement and she finished her routine, but disappointment was clear. Her score of 8.475 dropped her all the way to sixth after the first rotation, and that was just too much ground to make up.